Genesis WordPress theme framework version 1.9 – a box of delights

Death and taxes are the two certainties in life and to those I’d like to add a third… changes on the internet.

Code changes, browser changes, WordPress changes and constant tweaks from Google.

If you’re a website owner or a blogger, trying to keep up with the changes can be a nightmare, unless…. you’re using the Genesis theme framework.

The developers over at Studiopress have taken all the changes to code, WordPress and Google and given them to us in a nice sanitised format in the shape of Genesis version 1.9 and I for one… am oh so grateful.

Welcome to Genesis 1.9
Thank you for updating to the latest version! Using Genesis 1.9 will give you more options than you’ve ever had and your website will continue to purr like a kitten.
Brian Gardner – Studiopress

User benefits of Genesis 1.9… how will it give you a better website or blog?

This is not a technical review of Genesis 1.9 it’s a look at the new features that will make your website or blog look better, perform better and rank higher in the search engines.

Genesis has always been a great WordPress theme framework and with the release of 1.9, it got even better.

To enable you to showcase your content… bright new modern design with wider layout

Genesis have always been advocates of readability with great font combinations highlighted with lots of white space and version 1.9 has continued that tradition.

The default design has been modernised and updated and the width of the layout has been increased to 1152px.
That gives you more than enough room to showcase your goods and services.

And of course, it’s fully mobile responsive.

To help you sleep a little sounder… Updated Security Audit

WordPress security is an ongoing battle.
WordPress harden their security with the release of each update and Studiopress do the same.

Once again they’ve hired WordPress lead developer Mark Jaquith to perform a full review of code for security… read what he has to say below:

It’s clear StudioPress made security a priority when developing Genesis and from a security standpoint, Genesis 1.9 is at the top of its class.
Mark Jaquith

To make Google love you… setup Google Authorship in three easy steps

If you don’t know much about Google Authorship read this post by SEOMoz on the importance of Google Authorship to SEO.

And to show you how difficult it is to setup, without Genesis, take a look at The Definitive Guide To Google Authorship Markup.

With the release of Genesis 1.9 it’s now a breeze to associate your content with your Google+ account.
All you have to do is enter your Google+ account URL in the Google+ field of your WordPress user profile and save – Genesis does the rest.
And if you want to associate an author with the homepage, you can do that under the Genesis SEO Settings.

For full details from Brian Gardner of Studiopress take a look at Claim Google authorship

… Google Authorship basically amounts to the biggest shakeup in search since the link. It’s Google’s way of identifying the author of a piece of content to factor it as a signal of content quality.
Brian Gardner – Studiopress

To help with the housekeeping… deprecated and removed widgets

Studiopress have used the release of Genesis 1.9 to carry out a little tidying up of their various widgets.
Some have been deprecated and some removed.

Deprecated widgets – in order for authors to release updates more frequently the “eNews & Updates” and “Latest Tweets” widgets will become plugins, and will eventually be removed from Genesis.

Removed widgets – the Category and Page menu widgets were deprecated a few releases ago and with Genesis 1.9 the widgets have been removed.
You will need to build a WordPress custom menu and add the custom menu widget to the Header Right widget area of your Genesis theme.

This tidies up the WordPress dashboard, adds efficiency and removes duplication of WordPress core functions.

And what of the future…. to infinity and beyond with Genesis 2.0

The developers over at StudioPress are already working on Genesis version 2.0 with an anticipated release date of Spring/Summer 2013.

In the meantime, just to whet your appetite, here are a couple of the features you can look forward to:

Support for HTML5 markup – the new markup structure in Genesis 2.0 will be built with HTML5. You will have the ability to turn on HTML5 support with a simple function through your child theme.

A new Mobile Strategy – Studiopress have been releasing mobile responsive themes for some time now and in Genesis 2.0 they’re… “going to be doing some things that will make it a whole lot easier to get your site mobile ready.”

It all sounds good and don’t worry if you don’t know a thing about HTML5 or Mobile Responsive CSS, because the Studiopress developers will do it all for you.

Thanks for visiting and we’d love to hear from you

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed the post.

If you’re thinking of starting up a website or a blog or you already have a WordPress site that you’d like to move over to Genesis, please feel free to contact us.

Or simply let us have your thoughts on the Genesis theme framework, other WordPress theme frameworks or anything else that takes your fancy in the comments below.